For a really great sale, that first person might have arrived days in advance; sleeping in his car, handing out pre-sale numbers and waiting for the sale to begin. Cars and vans clogging the streets were endearing to none; the neighbors in their upscale neighborhoods, the police who were called on occasion and the public, who felt the system was rigged. The real impetus for change came in response to that first person on the scene and he was the same man, sale after sale. His interest was not in the sale, per se, but in selling numbers for the sale. The estate sale personnel never really knew the inner workings of his scheme as it was not part of their own sale protocol. They did know, however, that they wanted, indeed needed, to refine the pre-sale number system, diffusing the chaos and ill will while maintaining the competitive drive which fuels the success of a sale.
The dozen or so workers for the sale begin to arrive shortly before 8 am. As they approach the house they see the clusters of people talking, drinking coffee, peering in the windows, wandering the grounds — a relatively calm image, at this point. This veneer of calm is akin to a lull before a storm; when the door to the sale opens these same people at 9 am may truly represent the eye of a storm. But for now, workers and buyers exchange pleasantries as the workers enter the inner sanctum which houses the merchandise, closing the door behind them. Everybody has an agenda: the workers want civility from the buyers and the buyers want the good will for the workers, hoping it will give them an edge later on.
Once inside, the workers are usually encountering the contents for the first time. Surveying the house, not working, is their first priority. As it nears 9 am, they ready themselves for work, getting their name tags, cash books and, all importantly, room assignments.
Meanwhile, outside more and more people continue to arrive and as the minutes progress toward the 9 am opening, the level of tension for the buyers is palpable. You can see it in their body language, pacing up and down, rapid first questions mouthed to workers inside. Their noses are now pressed against the window panes as they weigh their strategies: the living room first for the console table or the dining room for the sideboard? They are also assessing their competition. They ask, not quite casually, of a competing dealer, what number do they have? The civility of the question hardly masks the intensity of their rivalry. Further unsettling the known competition equation as the 'just plain folks' milling about; their wants are unknown.
It's almost time and the pre-ordained line begins to form. At this point, no words are exchanged between the first 20 or so people holding numbers, the ones who will be able to enter the house in the first wave of estate sale customers.
Inside the house there is considerable tension, though perhaps not on the scale of that outside the house. The workers are now in full work mode and wary ahead of time of making mistakes in the hysteria of the first few minutes, perhaps marking the wrong piece for the wrong dealer or allowing a small object to find its way into a stray pocket or purse. What an estate sale worker dreads the most in those few minutes is getting some of the more high strung dealers vying for the same sale pieces. There is nothing serene about the first half hour of the sale and we are steeling ourselves for this moment: 9:00am.
The man at the door starts calling out the numbers...1, ...2,....3, up to the number the size of the house and the workforce can accommodate at one time. The rush is on. The whole experience of the first few minutes is surreal: People are running everywhere, pointing and yelling, identifying their desired pieces to workers who follow, stickering these items with the buyer's name. Buyers keep running and pointing and calling out, trying to get additional pieces while others throughout the room are doing exactly the same thing and often for the same item. They buy and buy without coming up for air and don't even take a few seconds to examine a piece because that will mean that they might lose out on something else. The volume is loud and the language often crude when they lose out on a coveted item.
If the house is large, customers circle round and round, making sure there is nothing left for them to buy. Once the is shopping completed, sales slips are taken to the cashiers and goods are beginning to be packed up with the purchases often being examined for the first time. It is now about 9:30am and although the sale has just begun, more than a third of the offerings have been sold. The first buyers begin to exit the house.
The impatience level for the next wave of buyers has been mounting with each passing minute. When the weather presents the problem of rain, snow, heat or cold there is understandably a lot of grousing from those waiting. At those times, it's hard to even explain to yourself why this mission is so urgent. But there you are, waiting until your number is called, watching as each person leaves the house, making sure the line keeps moving and always eyeing what is coming out of the house. Often, the object departing is just what you wanted but would you have moved quickly enough or would you have been willing to pay the price? It doesn't matter, the departing object is just what you wanted.
After the first hour, the line at the front door disappears, replaced by a steady stream of the hopeful. People continue to buy but in a more deliberate manner. This pattern continues throughout the course of the two days the sale takes place with only one additional component: the bids. Bids are left in the Bid Book throughout the course of the first day and into the morning of the second day. The bid time period again attracts the more energetic buyers. The tempo of each sale varies but this pattern of twin peaks — the early crowd and bid time — remains consistent.
The two-day sale has, in fact, been weeks and sometimes months in the making. The usual scenario follows a routine: the owner is moving and has to clear out the house. The owners are taking the things they value most but much remains to be sold. Options would include selling the better pieces outright to a dealer or consigning them to a resale company or to an auction house; contacting an estate sale company or running a sale themselves. By the time they contact an estate sale company, they have usually decided this last option too daunting a task, one for which they lack both the expertise and the time.
Canning & Watson is one of the many firms in the North East area that the owners might call in to explore the estate sale route. An estate sale company will, as the owner's agent, sell the entire contents of the house down to the last can opener. For the inevitable pieces that don't sell, the company will arrange for a clean-up crew, a donation to a charity or, in some cases, placing pieces on consignment. In other words, they like other estate sale firms, are full service. Estate sale firms also offer the advantage of a lump sum payment rather than the piecemeal payments of a consignment firm and most auction houses.
On a first visit to a property, an estate sale company will assess the inventory to be sold and the general terms of the sale, such as the approximate date which is usually dependent upon the house sale closing date, and their commission rate. A company will also assess their own ability to work with the owner. The owner, I might add, is also taking stock of their prospective estate sale agents and comparing them to other venues they have explored and evaluating their commission rate. If all the factors seem favorable to both parties a contract is signed.
End of Part One
©Jeanne Hubbell Asher for SeniorWomen.com
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